Closure Report on Capital Ambition Funding

The London Borough of Hackney was in receipt of a £300,000 support package from Capital Ambition in April 2008 to assist in our trajectory of improvement. The funding package was split between two areas Equality and Diversity (£100,000) and Customer Services (£200,000). This report summarises the achievements and improvements made as a result of the funding package.

Equality and Diversity

Summary

In November 2006 Hackney Council achieved Level 2 of the Equality Standard for Local Government. This was significantly behind many comparable authorities, including Tower Hamlets and Lewisham which were both at Level 5 (the highest). Also in November 2006, Hackney Council finally received confirmation that the Non Discrimination Notice from the Commission for Racial Equality would not be renewed. In this context Hackney Council ranked as one of the poorest performing boroughs in the country.

After taking post, Tim Shields, Hackney's new Chief Executive identified this as a priority area for the Council’s work to get “better faster”. Following discussions with Barry Quirk the council submitted a bid to Capital Ambition to strengthen the council’s capacity in equality and diversity.

This proposal aimed to support Hackney Council to raise its performance against the Equalities Standard for Local Government with minimum targets of Level 3 in 2007/8 and Level 5 by 2009/10

When the bid was submitted it was intended that peer support would be provided primarily by London Borough of Lewisham, currently at Level 5, with additional peer support from LB Waltham Forest and the LDA (specifically around Olympic Projects)

Improvement activity

The equality part of the project was amended slightly, following discussions with officers from Capital Ambition, for the following reasons:

- Staffing changes at Lewisham and the LDA made peer support arrangements less easy to put in place. More specific joint working with Waltham Forest and Lambeth were therefore arranged.
- The Equality Standard for Local Government was abolished by the I&DeA. Therefore it was no longer possible to arrange for our Level 5 target by 2009/10 to be externally validated. A new target of “Excellence” against the harder Equality Framework for Local Government by May 2011 was therefore agreed. Prior to that ESLG targets were met Details of progress against deliverables and funding/ costs is contained in Appendix One.

**Notable achievements**

Linked to Hackney's rapid overall improvement journey the Equality and Diversity picture has changed considerably. Part of the context for this is undoubtedly the overall position of the authority. However, with the Capital Ambition Investment of £100k, Hackney has been able to accelerate its equality journey with enhanced internal capacity, peer support and joint learning from other London Boroughs and is now regularly called on as an example of an authority from which other public bodies can learn.

**Our improvement journey for equality**

November 2006 – Non discrimination notice ends\
November 2006 - Declare Level 2 of ESLG\
May 2007 – Declare Level 3 of ESLG\
September 2007 – Level 3 of ESLG validated by external peers via I&DeA\
May 2008 – Declare Level 4 of ESLG, self assessment supported by peer meeting with Lambeth Council

The CAA Organisational Assessment, 2009, states:

"Increasing opportunities for all and raising the life chances of the most disadvantaged are at the heart of the Council's commitments to make Hackney a better place and to enable a good quality of life for all. As a community leader, service provider and employer, the Council puts equality and diversity first and this is evidenced in the corporate plan. Equality impact assessments are undertaken on a regular basis and are made available on the Council's website."

This view has been echoed in the Care Quality Commission Annual Performance Assessment of Adult Social Care.

**Outcome 5: Freedom from discrimination and harassment**

The council is performing Excellently

The Council's self-assessment that it had achieved Level 4 of the Equality Standards for Local Government was confirmed by a critical friend review. The Council was conducting research in this area on behalf of ADASS. The Service Inspection noted a strong corporate approach to equality and diversity, and effective support both to minority communities and to staff who reflected them. A wide range of positive initiatives included Equality Impact Assessments in key areas, while work with the Charedi Orthodox Jewish community won a Greater London Authority award.

**What the council does well:**

- A wide range of appropriate initiatives and forums were in place to promote equality and inclusion objectives. • The Council achieved Level 4 of the Equality Standard for Local Government and this was confirmed by a critical friend review. • The Council had a lead role in ADASS equality developments and was conducting research on its behalf. • The Service Inspection commented on the strong corporate approach to equality and diversity issues. • The Council’s work with the Charedi Orthodox Jewish community won an award from the Greater London Authority.

What the council needs to improve:

• None

ADVANCING EQUALITY IN HACKNEY – WHERE WE ARE NOW

ON TRACK FOR ‘EXCELLENCE’

Equality is woven through everything we do in Hackney. It is integral to all our planning and service delivery, our people management and partnership work.

OUR PRIORITIES

Embedding equality throughout the Council starts with the Mayor’s priorities and the sustainable community strategy.

Mayor’s priorities Improving services and increasing opportunities for all, raising the life chances of the most disadvantage Making sure the Council is high performing and efficient Providing effective community leadership and involving the whole borough in what we do.

Sustainable community strategy We have worked closely with our partners to develop a sustainable community strategy which is our shared vision for Hackney for the next ten years.

The sustainable community strategy contains ambitious targets to reduce inequalities and the number of people living in poverty in our borough. The Council will take the lead in delivering the sustainable community strategy, with the support of partners from all spheres of life – public, private, community and voluntary sectors - to pool all our efforts to make Hackney a better place.

ON TRACK FOR ‘EXCELLENCE’

We are on track for ‘Excellence’ for our work to advance equality in Hackney.

Local Government has changed from the Equality Standard to the Equality Framework in 2009. Under the new Framework, we are on track for excellence as we were under the old Standard. The new Equality Framework for Local Government has three levels: ‘Developing’, ‘Achieving’ and ‘Excellent’. We are rated as an ‘Achieving’ authority now; we are aiming for ‘Excellent’ by May 2011. We are confident that we are on track to get there as we had planned under the old Equality Standard (where we were at level 4 and aiming for level 5 – the equivalent of the new ‘Excellent’).

To help us get to ‘Excellent’ we are developing new action plans for all areas of the Council (by directorate) that reflect our work and aspirations for Hackney’s residents. The action planning workshops have been jointly facilitated with Waltham Forest officers, including Jane Brown, an accredited I&DeA Peer Reviewer. Our plans are underpinned by research and evidence of residents’ needs and analysis of what works. This comes from surveys such as the Place Survey, research and data, consultations and feedback from Hackney Matters, the Council’s e-panel of more than 2000 residents.

**OUR RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS**

Hackney residents are generally very positive about the borough. The Place Survey 2008, tells us:

- There has been a dramatic increase in satisfaction with Hackney as a place to live – up 12 points in 2 years. Nearly eight out of every ten residents believe that people from different backgrounds get on well together in Hackney – we know how important this is given the extent of economic polarisation – and we have one of the highest scores in London for the percentage of people who feel that they belong to their local neighbourhood.

- The overall score for satisfaction with the way Hackney Council runs things continues to improve, bucking the national trend.

- Hackney residents are more likely to be positive than negative in all areas of public service provision … in particular around seven in ten agree that local public services are working to make the area safer, cleaner and greener and that they treat all types of people fairly.

**OUR ACHIEVEMENTS**

Across the whole of the Council, we have achieved a lot that is helping us to make genuine equality gains for local people and groups, and reduce inequality in the borough.

Highlights include:

- Most Improved Council, Local Government Chronicle Awards 2009 – for demonstrating real service and performance improvements which have been recognised by the community

- Comprehensive Area Assessment Organisational Assessment: an overall rating of three out of four; plus a score of three out of four for best use of resources

- Reducing infant mortality: achieving a ‘Green flag’ in the Comprehensive Area Assessment for our work with partners to make a significant reduction in infant mortality in Hackney – from 83 in 2005 to 24 in 2009 (we are now inline with the national average)

600 women in Hackney have received bilingual support meaning a significant increase in the number of women presenting for antenatal care at 12 weeks

Beacon awards for involving our communities in 2012 and for Team Hackney’s Strategic Commissioning – these awards recognise excellence and innovation in improving quality of life for residents and communities

We are rapidly approaching the London employment rate – latest figures show the numbers of residents in work is still increasing – up to 63.1% in 2009 from 53.2% in 2006

In 2009, we have for the first time exceeded the national average for pupils getting at least 5A\*-C GCSEs including maths and English – up nearly 9% in a year

Hackney Matters e-panel: a representative group of more than 2000 residents providing feedback to the Council to inform service improvements

In the last year, more than 200 young people have used our youth services every week. The National Youth Agency has given Hackney a national quality award this year, and particularly praised the commitment to youth participation and youth involvement in every aspect of service planning and delivery in the borough

The Care Quality Commission has rated Hackney’s adult social care services as excellent overall, delivering well above the minimum requirement for people; drawing on good partnerships and a culturally sensitive approach

The Care Quality Commission commented on the strong corporate approach to equality and diversity, and the Council’s work on social care with the Charedi Orthodox Jewish community won an award from the Greater London Authority

Hackney has some of the best crime reduction figures in London thanks to focused efforts through the strong Council/Police partnership; overall crime rates have dropped 32% in the last four years

Hackney has a large and visible LGBT community; as well as tackling homophobic and transphobic hate crime, we have a range of specialist services – the Improvement and Development Agency for example recently approached Hackney to learn more about practice in schools

A new, fully accessible customer services centre is opening in 2010; the centre meets rigorous criteria for accessible design and the Council worked with Disability Backup to ensure it will meet the needs of disabled customers

Following consultation, the Council has introduced more face-to-face contact for residents with Revenues and Benefits staff and introduced community surgeries in neighbourhood offices, libraries and children’s centres Our streets are among the cleanest in London and we’ve just some of best scores ever for clean streets

Hackney parks have nine green flags up from one flag four years ago

All six of Hackney’s leisure centres are Quest accredited; and Clissold Leisure Centre is recognised as excellent

These, and other achievements, are a sound base for us to work towards excellence from.

OUR STAFF

The way we work in Hackney Council has made real differences to residents’ lives.

There’s a keen sense of pride among our staff about Hackney the place, and the work of the Council. We couldn’t have achieved as much as we have done over the last few years, the massive improvements in services and in resident satisfaction, while also operating much more efficiently, without a highly engaged workforce.

The results of the 2009 employee survey conducted by Ipsos MORI were very positive for the Council; the improvement in staff attitudes, noted in 2005 and 2007, has been sustained and improved. Ipsos MORI report that Hackney Council now receives better rating from its staff than almost any other public sector employer they work with. In 2009, 57 percent of staff say they would speak positively about the Council as an employer, up from 38 percent in 2004. In addition we now rank 43rd against the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

Hackney is one of the most diverse areas in the country and our workforce profile is more reflective of the community the Council serves than many other councils. Hackney holds pole position as the country’s top council for employing senior management staff from ethnic minorities for the second year running. Over a quarter of Hackney Council’s top 5% earners are from ethnic minorities, the highest figure in England according to a survey from the GMB union.

Equality and diversity issues are embedded in the way we plan and deliver and we take them seriously. The Deputy Mayor chairs the Hackney Diversity in Employment forum which enables the Council to work with unions to agree equality and diversity targets for the organisation; the Corporate Director for Community Services leads on equality for the Chief Executive and Hackney Management Team; we have Two Ticks accreditation as a positive employer of disabled people; and Hackney Council is a Stonewall Diversity Champion for promoting lesbian, gay and bisexual equality in the workplace.

NEXT STEPS

Working with the new Equality Framework for Local Government we will continue ‘moving towards excellence’ by May 2011.

We are developing new service plans with clear objectives and actions to improve services and deliver sustainable equalities outcomes for Hackney in line with the Framework’s five core performance areas: • Knowing your community and equality mapping • Place shaping, leadership and partnership • Community engagement and satisfaction • Responsive services and customer care • A modern and diverse workforce

We have strong commitment from the Mayor, deputy Mayor, the Chief Executive and Hackney Management Team to support and drive forward the equalities agenda.

Lessons learned

The Equality and Diversity Improvement Project has supported us to change a number of our practices.

• Focussed work on mainstreaming equality and diversity through service planning, including detailed work with Heads of Services to focus on equality outcomes and stronger links to our Sustainable Community Strategy (mainly through joint working with Waltham Forest) • Identification of additional work we need to do to ensure quality in commissioned services (through community engagement and consultation) • Greater focus on Community Cohesion • A move from a risk management mindset on workforce racial equality to a more proactive approach to partnership with staff groups and recognised trades unions on agreed equality objectives

Dissemination

Officers from Hackney Council have shared best practice with presentations in a number of forums including:

• I&DeA Equality Seminars (on Gender and Sexual Orientation work) • Capital Ambition Equality Seminar (on Partnership work) • The GOL London Equality Officers’ Forum (ongoing contribution) • The GOL Cohesion Forum (on Hackney Cohesion Review) • Equality and Diversity Forum National Conference (on multiple discrimination) • Westminster Conference Briefing (on racial equality)

Case studies are being developed for the I&DeA communities of practice.

The Council’s Equality work is communicated to residents via Hackney Gazette with focussed stories and to staff via Hi, the in-house magazine.

Kim Wright, Hackney’s Corporate Director for Community Services and Hackney Management Team lead officer on equality and diversity, is now a leading member of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services Equality Sub Committee. In this capacity she has joined the National Diversity Council for the NHS. For further information about the Equality, Diversity and Cohesion work of Hackney council please contact Rosalind Hardie Ejiohuo, Head of Equality and Diversity. rosalind.hardieejiohuo@hackney.gov.uk or 020 8356 3402 Customer Services

The Council embarked upon an ambition programme to improve access to Council services. The “Service First Programme” that has been running for the past three years has seen the building of a new multi million pound service centre in Central Hackney and a reshaping of how the Council will provide services in the future.

Underpinning the “Service First Programme” has been a “Customer Services Strategy” that has set out the vision of the Council for improved customer service delivered through four main work streams:-

- Customer Access
- Customer Care Culture
- Customer-facing ICT
- Customer Insight

The first two work streams have focused respectively on improving access to services and on improving the quality of the customer experience, ensuring that a culture of customer care is embedded throughout the organisation and that feedback from customers is consistently used to improve service delivery. The Customer Services Strategy and work plan have will ensure that the Council becomes better at customer services, faster.

The second two work streams are intended to support the achievement of the first two and reflect two key principles – that a consistent and corporate approach to customer services can only be significantly improved by the effective use of information and communications technologies and a corporate approach to data, and that service improvement needs to be based on a good understanding of our customers, our interactions with them and their changing needs and requirements.

The Capital Ambition funding has assisted the Council with the delivery of the later three work streams of the strategy.

Progress Against Intended Deliverables The key deliverables were managed under the four main headings Customer Care Culture, Customer Feedback, Transactional Web Development and Improving Customer Access.

Customer Care Culture This aspect of the Capital Ambition work programme consisted of the provision of four separate learning and development training courses three of which have been completed:

- 10 service learning days
- 2 intensive coaching pilots in services with significant customer contact
- 5 managers seminars/events
- Customer experience training for services moving into the new service centre.

The one aspect of customer care culture not yet completed relates to the development of an interactive customer services bulletin. Customer Feedback This aspect of the Capital Ambition work programme consisted of the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting on customer experience and feedback through Gov Metric and customer feedback cards.

The Council have implemented “Service Seven” standards across the organisation which relates to the monitoring and reporting on customer contact performance for :-

Web access E-mails Telephone Contact Letters Face to Face contact in reception points Customer Feedback Complaints

Quarterly Mystery Shopping provides independent assessment on performance across the whole Council and the systems in place for monitoring and reporting are managed through the use of the Council’s corporate complaints system data base “Respond”. All Directorates are now required to provide evidence on how they have used customer feedback to implement service improvement initiatives.

In addition to implementing the standards work has also been carried out on understanding the Council’s customer base through customer segmentation analysis to ensure there is a sound understanding of who our customers are, where they live in the borough, and how and when they access services.

Transactional Web Development This aspect of the Capital Ambition work programme has seen the development of the transactional area of the Hackney Web Site to provide more transactional capability. The Council have implemented three priority on line services, Bulky Waste Collections, Registrars Copy Certificates and Parking Permit Renewals. and now have a solid IT platform from which future services can be developed and implemented on line.

Improving Customer Access This aspect of the Capital Ambition work programme has assisted the Council to carry out a detailed study to understand customer contact and flow to enable a new corporate service delivery model to be developed and implemented in the new Hackney Service Centre. The “Single Front Office” will allow all customer contact to be channelled through a single point of contact with the aim to “getting in right” first time.

Notable Achievement The most notable achievement has been the development and implementation of the new service delivery model “single front office” and the new ways of working this brings.

Lessons Learned

Customer Care Culture Preparation of training materials taking longer than expected to complete. Increasing the sample sizes for all 3 channels (letters, emails and F2F) has given corporate credibility to the mystery shopping testing and results. This has enabled the organisation to agree and drive service improvements forward. Ultimately this will result in raising customer care standards.

Having larger sample sizes has enabled testing for a wider range of services. This has given more insight into the customer experience across the organisation. Best practice has been identified and case studies developed to provide support to those services failing to meet the standard.

Improving the reporting format has provided the organisation with comprehensive data analysis. This has enabled the customer care team to measure key performance standards more effectively so the organisation can understand the customer experience.

**Customer Feedback** Difficulties experienced in some services with lack of customer data and profiles.

Implementing the feedback loop has resulted in key service outcomes/improvements that benefit all residents and services users. It has also helped reinforce the message that “Hackney listens to its residents” through its “You said, we listened, we did” campaign. It has also be an opportunity to capture equalities data to understand the residents needs better.

**Transactional Web Development** Difficulties in accessing service experts in directorates to support the development. Should have gone for fixed term secondments to project team.

**Improving Customer Access** Changing the culture in some departments to new ways of working and buy in to new service delivery model.

**Sharing and Disseminating Learning** Within the Council all aspects of the Capital Ambition work programme have been incorporated into the Service First Business Transformation Board and associated directorate project groups.

Presentations on the Customer Services Strategy and the elements of the Capital Ambition programme have been made to all staff in all directorates.

Tim Shields Chief Executive London Borough of Hackney For further information please contact Bruce Devile, Head of Corporate Performance. bruce.devile@hackney.gov.uk or 020 8356 3418